Fileshare Restructure and Data Governance

Our client, a small independent oil company with offices located in both southeast England and Aberdeen, has achieved outstanding growth over the last five years which has subsequently led to an equally outstanding growth in the volume of information stored on their shared network drives.

This has left them with little consistent file structure or control, causing increasing frustration as staff and data users struggled to find information and loss of confidence that they are using the best or most available information on which to make business decisions.

Recognising this, Venture were approached and asked to review information usage across the current fileserver structure, make recommendations and help implement improvements through a new file structure, and propose other activities that may assist with improving the efficiency of ongoing information management and accessibility within the company.

Solution

Following a series of interviews and workshops with key staff and data users in both offices we proposed a plan for the phased development and implementation of recommendations for improved information management. These included:

• A uniform fileshare restructure better aligned to the needs of both offices
• Providing assistance with the file-plan mapping and data migration implementation plan
• Proposing and establishing an in-house data governance group, formed of key data users and technical assistants, enabling the client to take ongoing responsibility and control for maintaining their new structure

Outcome

As a result of Venture's work, our client now has a cleaner, more organised file structure, better based around its internal corporate activities and the work synergies of both offices. This provides staff and data users with more timely access to their information, easier co-operation between the offices, and increased confidence in their data.

In addition, a data governance group has been formed, comprising key members of staff, to ensure for the first time that ongoing document management practices across the company conform to guidelines and remain in line with organisational requirements.